If you really want to grow strawberries, but there is no summer cottage, do not despair.
Take on growing strawberries in pots - it's interesting!
It is best to grow self-pollinating and ampelous varieties in pots.
Plant strawberry seedlings in a pot not too thick for the seedlings to touch a little, but not to obscure neighboring bushes.
Fig. 1. Strawberry ampelous
Selection of strawberry varieties for growing in pots on the balcony
There are 3 types of strawberries:
- Strawberry varieties that produce one crop in mid-summer;
- varieties in which berries are formed in spring and autumn;
- repairing, it bears fruit all the time.
Experts advise buying for cultivation in pots varieties of remontant strawberries. It has no special requirements for the length of the day, it bears fruit all year round, and ampelous varieties will hang beautifully from the cache-pot.
For example, gardeners recommend planting "Queen Elizabeth," she has a very large number of berries that are picked from a bush. She gives a mustache. Also suitable are "Homemade Dessert", ampelous "Frapendula". “Bolero” does not give a mustache, but it bears fruit all season. These varieties give a crop already in the first year.
Choosing a variety of strawberries for growing in pots at home
According to the recommendations of people who grow strawberries on the windowsill, the best varieties are suitable for this: "Netherlands", "Home Delicacy", "Elsanta", "Geneva", "Eros", "Queen Elizabeth 2".
Soil for strawberries
Best of all, get ready-made universal soil for strawberries in the store. But you can make the earth yourself. Take for this equal parts of humus, sand and earth.
Or in the fall, make a compost pile - dig a trench, pour leaves there, put mowed grass and tops. Sprinkle with a mixture of humus, sand and earth. Pour the Magic Bed purchased in the store. Cover with a black film, and sprinkle the edges of the film with earth. In spring, the soil will be ready.
Take pots with a diameter of 18 cm, make a drain, because strawberries do not like stagnation of moisture. At the bottom of the pots, put pieces of brick, small pebbles, expanded clay.
Potted Strawberries: Seed
1. How to collect your seeds?
Leave one of the largest berries on the bush. When it ripens, pick, wipe in a strainer under a stream of cold water, then place in a glass of water and leave for 3 days, then the pulp will leave the seeds. Rinse and dry on a napkin.
2. Planting seeds
1. Purchase strawberry seeds from your local nursery. It is best sown in mid-February. Fill the pot with drainage with sand to half, then pour the earthen mixture, thoroughly pour.
2. Spread the seeds on the ground. Since they are very small, you can do this with tweezers. Squeeze the seeds slightly.
3. Pour snow on top.
Fig. 2. Planting strawberry seeds
4. Cover the pots with polyethylene film or glass.
5. Put the pots in the sun. If you plant strawberries in the winter, then place the peas near the radiator.
6. Water the plantings. Let the earth be wet, but not too damp. See that the soil does not dry.
7. When the first sprouts appear, remove the film. Now the earth will dry faster, so do not forget to check the soil and water it.
8. Tear out the extra sprouts. Let the seedlings grow at a distance of 15 cm.
9. Mulch the surface of the earth.
Planting seedlings
If you want to plant seedlings taken from your dacha in pots, then choose healthy bushes, place them in a small container with soil and put them in a cool place for 14 days, so you will provide a rest period for the bushes. After gently lift the bush from the temporary container, carefully shake off the excess silt.
So that powerful roots grow in seedlings, place 1 tablet of heteroauxin in 5 l of water. Put the seedlings in a solution with heteroauxin so that they are saturated with it. Leave for 18 hours. Then spread the roots on the surface of the soil in a pot. Sprinkle the soil so that the outlet is above ground level. Compact the soil. Water thoroughly, where you see the dips, sprinkle the soil.
Strawberries in pots at home: conditions for flowering and fruiting
Potted strawberries are advised to be placed on the south and southeast windowsill, as the bushes love good lighting.
If your strawberry grows in a pot or hanging basket, then turn the container, then the plant will be illuminated from different sides.
In winter, plants need additional illumination, they can be lit with fluorescent lamps so that the crop has a 12 hour day. Strawberries can be watered through a pallet, but it should not be poured, or the rhizomes will rot and green algae will appear on the ground. Then oxygen will stop flowing to the rhizomes and the strawberries will not grow.
If strawberry leaves are pale, then add a pinch of ground coffee to the ground, this will add nitrogen to the soil. If you noticed that the rhizomes peek out from the hole at the bottom of the pot, then transplant the bush into a larger pot.
Strawberries love soil with pH = 5.3-6.5. You can add a handful of compost to the pot once a month. Once a week, it is necessary to feed the strawberries with an ash solution and a pink solution of potassium permanganate. If ovaries appear, stop feeding.
When the first peduncles appear, remove them so that the strawberries can grow powerful leaves. The second peduncles grow in 2-3 weeks, but they are much more powerful and stronger than the first. Usually on a peduncle 7-9 buds. You can cut 4-5 buds, leaving 3-4. Then the berries will be big.
It is necessary to spray strawberries with well-settled water, as well as substances with iron, as it helps to plant the crop.
In addition, some repairing varieties produce many mustaches, if you want to collect as many berries as possible, then trim the tendrils with scissors, as they consume a lot of nutrients and therefore greatly reduce the yield.
After 2 months you will collect the first crop. When blooming, swipe the flowers with a soft brush so that they are pollinated. Collect ripened berries immediately; those that hang for a long time can rot. Bushes cease to yield for 4 years.
After collecting the berries, you need to trim the leaves and put the pots with bushes in a dark place for 3 months, this will be a dormant period, at this time you need to water the bushes so that the ground is not dry.
Potted strawberries on the balcony
When planting in pots, leave a distance of 20 cm between the bushes. On the balcony, you can also highlight strawberries with lamps until 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Pollinate the plants yourself, daily, in front of the blooming strawberries, put a fan. Watch the watering, the soil should not be dry, but not too wet. Twice a month, feed bushes with fertilizers.
Pests
Until the buds open, the bushes are sprayed from midges and other insects with a composition of herbs. Take: leaves of nettle, celandine, pods of hot pepper, pour boiling water. Leave it overnight. In the morning, strain the infusion, dilute with water and spray the bushes.
Spider mite and aphid
On unripe berries, a spider mite often appears. It can be seen by a small cobweb on the plants, and diseased leaves turn yellow and dry.
To eliminate the pest, make a tincture: add 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic in 100 g of water and spray the bushes with fresh infusion, it helps a lot from spider mites and aphids.
Birds
If the berries on the balcony begin to peck the birds, fix the wire mesh over the pot.
Strawberry mite
If you planted diseased bushes, then in spring, as soon as the first leaves appear, spray them with the composition "Colloidal sulfur" or "Karbofos". Spray Neoron 10 days before buds open.
Fig. 3. Strawberry tick
Wasps
You can put cans with compote on the balcony, then the wasps will be distracted by the compote and will not touch the berries.
Disease
Fusarium and late blight, with it, necrosis occurs on the edges of the leaves, in the future the leaves become brown and die. With late blight, the bushes grow very poorly, the leaves become grayish. Then the rhizomes die.
If you plant strawberries in seedlings in pots, then soak the rhizomes with solutions of humate K (with a concentration of 15 g / l) and agate 25k (with a concentration of 7 g / l) for prevention before planting.
Powdery mildew
With this disease, the leaves curl and turn purple, they have a powdery coating. In case of damage to the plant, it is necessary to spray it with its composition: pour 15 g of soap, Azocene and copper sulfate and 15 g of "Topaz" into 15 liters of water. But you can use the composition only before flowering strawberries.
Fig. 4. Powdery mildew
Gray rot
It is found by the fact that light brown spots with a fluffy coating are visible on the berries. Berries dry and mummify. For prevention, you need to mulch the earth in pots with chopped straw or pine needles. In the spring, at the beginning of leaf growth, spray the bushes with 2-4% Bordeaux liquid.
Brown leaf spot
Brown spots appear on the leaves and sepals, then they increase.
Leaf spotting
Brownish and purple spots appear on the leaves. When the first leaves grow in a new seedling, then spray them with 2-4% Bordeaux liquid. When the berries are tied, it is no longer possible to carry out processing until the end of fruiting.
That is, if you do not have a summer cottage or you have nowhere to plant strawberries, then you can plant strawberries in pots and grow them in a room or on the balcony. Strawberries will perfectly decorate the windows in the apartment or loggia, both during flowering and fruiting.
